Following the nationwide lighting of beacons in April to mark the Queen’s actual 90th birthday, June sees The Mall become a giant street party for her official knees-up.
Sunday 5 June
• 11am to 7pm. Beginning with a special service in St Andrew’s Church from 11am, Steyning Festival is dedicating the closing Tastes And Traditions Of Sussex day to the Queen. The festival big top in Cuthbert’s Field will host a bar and stalls selling the best in Sussex food, games, musical events in the church, and a group photo in the shape of a 90 at 4.30pm. The event closes with a community singalong to Queen led by Steyning Grammar School at 6pm.
Thursday 9 June
• To mark the Queen’s 90th birthday the National Theatre Live is broadcasting an encore screening at cinemas across Sussex of The Audience starring Helen Mirren as the long-reigning monarch. The play, written by Peter Morgan who also penned the Oscar-winning The Queen, and directed by Billy Elliot’s Stephen Daldry, imagines Mirren’s head of state meeting 12 Prime Ministers from Churchill to Cameron in their confidential private weekly meetings.
There are screenings at cinemas in Brighton, Rye, Seaford, Hastings, Eastbourne, Hailsham, Hurst, Burgess Hill, Worthing, Horsham, Uckfield, Crawley, East Grinstead, Littlehampton and Bognor.
ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/ntlout17-the-audience
Friday 10 June
• Mid-Sussex Older People’s Council celebrates with tea at the Copthorne Hotel Effingham Gatwick, in West Park Road, Copthorne, near Crawley.
01444 242760 or anita@msopc.org.uk
Saturday 11 June
• Noon to 3pm. There are competitions, free bouncy castles and games, stalls and a strawberry tea tent all coming to Fletcher’s Field in Arundel Road, Angmering in a giant street party.
www.allaboutangmering.co.uk/events
• 4pm. Eastbourne Sunshine Carnival takes on the theme of the Queen’s 90th birthday, with royally dressed carnival floats processing from Western Lawns to Princes Park.
Sunday 12 June
• Noon to 4pm. Beech Hurst Gardens in Haywards Heath is hosting a family picnic and sports taster day organised by Mid-Sussex Council and Haywards Heath Town Council with free activities for all ages.
• 11am to 4pm. The annual Burgess Hill Summer Fayre will have a royal theme. St John’s Park will host its own street party as part of the fair, with Burgess Hill Youth running craft activities from 11am to 2pm.
www.burgesshill.gov.uk/summerfayre
• 1pm to 6pm. Following her royal wedding party Jaynie Sykes-Strudwick is organising another celebration for the Queen’s 90th birthday on Lancing Beach Green. Proms On The Lawn features the Tony Strudwick and Worthing Silver Bands, plus a tombola, fairground rides, stalls, a raffle and children’s fancy dress competition. Money raised by the free afternoon will go to the charity ME Association.
www.lancingparishcouncil.gov.uk/events
• 4pm. The Warwick, in Warwick Street, Worthing is hosting a street party, featuring music by the K2 Band.
• 1pm to 5.30pm. St Peter and St James Hospice in North Chailey is set to benefit from Hurstpierpoint’s annual open gardens – being held this year in conjunction with the Queen’s birthday celebrations. Last year more than £600 visitors raised £5,544.54 when they visited the eight gardens.
hurstpierpointopengardens.org.uk
• At the time of going to press street parties were also in the planning stages for Brighton, Uckfield, Petworth, Lodsworth, Milland, Kirdford, Telscombe, Woolbeding, Selsey, Westbourne, Northchapel, Sutton and Barlavington, Horam, Cocking, Seaford, Singleton, Compton, Ebernoe, East Dean and Bury, with Plaistow and Ifold planning a vintage royal picnic and Midhurst marking the event with a commemorative tree.
• And with pub opening hours being extended by two hours on Friday 10 June and Saturday 11 June, coinciding with the opening matches for England and Wales in the Euro 2016 tournament, there are many more parties to come.
